Is there anyone out there who is still using Internet Explorer? Hopefully not, but for the weirdos who still haven’t moved on to alternatives such as Firefox, Brave, and the little-known Chrome, Microsoft has published an announcement warning IE users that the classic browser will, as previously planned, be retired on June 15, 2022. The announcement links to an older article that explains how people can switch to Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser instead.
“As previously announced, the future of Internet Explorer on Windows is in Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer mode (IE mode) provides legacy browser support within Microsoft Edge,” Microsoft’s announcement on the Windows message center reads. “Because of this, the Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) desktop application will be retired on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10. This means that the IE11 desktop application will no longer be supported and afterward will redirect to Microsoft Edge if a user tries to access it.”
Internet Explorer 11 desktop app retirement FAQ (Microsoft)
The future of Internet Explorer (“IE”) on Windows 10 is in Microsoft Edge. What does this mean for commercial organizations, IT admins, developers, and end users? Microsoft Edge brings you a faster, more secure, and more modern web experience than Internet Explorer. Also, Microsoft Edge with Internet Explorer mode (“IE mode”), is the only browser with built-in compatibility for legacy IE-based sites and apps.
As announced today, Microsoft Edge with IE mode is officially replacing the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application on Windows 10. As a result, the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will go out of support and be retired on June 15, 2022 for certain versions of Windows 10.
If your organization has legacy apps and sites dependent on IE11, you can follow the Getting Started Guide to start configuring IE mode. You may be concerned about change management, so please check out the Internet Explorer Retirement Adoption Kit for ready-made content to help you notify users and leaders in your organization about the upcoming changes and help move them to Microsoft Edge.
For developers working on modern websites or applications, we understand that it has been increasingly difficult to support Internet Explorer side-by-side with modern browsers. While this announcement will start the transition of moving users from Internet Explorer to the more modern Microsoft Edge browser, it will take time and we recommend that you develop a plan to end support for Internet Explorer. Read this Moving users to Microsoft Edge from Internet Explorer article to learn how we can help.